"Young hero!"
Asama Sandayu's voice trembled with grim resolve, yet rang out through the freezing wind with extraordinary force.
He staggered a step forward, his aged eyes looking past Naruto's straight-backed figure to fix on Nadare Rōga and his two companions. The hatred in his gaze seemed almost ready to become tangible flames.
"If you are willing to strike, young hero, and slay these three villains who aided a tyrant and betrayed their former lord!
Then I, Asama Sandayu-"
He all but roared, pointing a withered finger at his own chest. "Will pay thirty percent above the going bounty rate on the Jianghu black market!"
At those words, even the howling wind and snow seemed to freeze for an instant.
The director's eyes flew wide, his mouth hanging open far enough to fit a snowball.
He had always thought Sandayu was merely a loyal old servant of limited means, scraping together funds by selling the princess's old belongings and drawing his meager pay from the film crew. Who could have imagined two million ryo?
Kazahana Koyuki also turned in astonishment to look at Sandayu.
In her memory, the old retainer who had watched her grow up had always dressed simply. How could he possibly produce such an astronomical sum?
The rest of the crew sucked in sharp breaths, their eyes filled with disbelief and a desire that had suddenly flared hot.
Two Million Ryō!
The sheer scale of it was staggering.
In the world as it was, what would it mean for an ordinary family of commoners to possess Two Million Ryō?
It meant enough to buy a mansion and fertile farmland in any prosperous town outside the "five capitals and five villages," keep servants, and provide three generations with fine clothes and lavish meals, with more wealth than they